Insurance (Risk Management)
Identify and Understand Risk
Risk management is a process to identify and understand potential risks which could impede our clients’ ability to reach their goals and objectives. A risk management plan includes strategies and techniques for recognizing and confronting these threats. Good risk management does not have to be expensive or time consuming; it may be as simple as answering these three questions:
1. What can go wrong?
2. What will we do, both to prevent the harm from occurring and in response to the harm or loss?
3. If something happens, how will we pay for it?
Risk management provides a clear and structured approach to identifying risks. Having a clear understanding of the potential risks allows our clients to measure and prioritize them and take the appropriate actions to reduce losses. It is important to note that an effective risk management practice does not eliminate risks; it simply allows us the opportunity to determine the best way to deal with them.
Role of Insurance in Risk Managment
Insurance is a valuable risk-financing tool. Few clients or businesses have the reserves or funds necessary to take on the risk themselves and pay the total costs following a loss. Insurance is simply a tool used to reduce the financial loss by providing funding in the event of certain events. These events could include a critical illness, disability, or death that could result in the loss of income required to achieve your financial objectives. Similarly, it could be a loss of a property, business or investments due to fire, theft, liability, tax issues or other material events that you are unable or unwilling to absorb through self-insuring.
Life Insurance
People buy Life Insurance to replace a financial loss that would result from a death. For example, a “Bread Winners” future income may need to be replaced. Frequently, Life Insurance is used to create an estate for survivors, or to provide a pool of money to pay income tax owed by the deceased.
Learn more about Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
People buy Disability Insurance to replace employment income that has stopped as a result of an illness or injury. Disability Insurance replaces a portion of monthly income, and can be paid on a tax-free basis.
Learn more about Disability Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance
People buy Critical Illness Insurance to replace income that has stopped as a result of a Critical Illness, and to pay for new expenses that may be incurred as a result of the illness. Critical Illness Insurance is relatively new in Canada. It was invented and first introduced in 1983 in South Africa by Dr. Marius Barnard as a top-up benefit to medical expense policies, and has only recently been available in Canada. Dr. Barnard recognized that many people were recovering from surgeries, that in earlier years would not have been conducted. (His brother Dr. Christian Barnard was a pioneer in heart transplant surgery). The additional life expectancy came with a cost, however, as frequently the patient could not continue to work, and had seriously depleted any savings they may have had to find medical and recovery expenses.
Learn more about Critical Illness Insurance
Long Term Care Insurance
People buy Long-Term Care Insurance to provide cash to fund the cost of nursing care at home or in a facility. This kind of insurance provides daily benefits to fund new expenses that result from a decline in health and the loss of independence.
Learn more about Long Term Care Insurance
Insurance Review Process
A Comprehensive Review of Your Insurance Coverage
Hatch Muir Financial Group has contracts with all major insurance and carriers, and provides products for Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, and Long Term Care Insurance. When selecting a carrier, Hatch Muir Financial Group typically survey the market, and seek bids from the top 25 carriers. All bids are shown to clients and differences in coverage offered and premium costs are discussed. This approach fully discloses to the client the competitiveness of the bids and demonstrates that we fully survey the market and make recommendations that are fact based, with no preference given to any individual supplier.
We are frequently asked to review existing insurance contracts. We employ the same review process, by seeking bids from carriers and comparing them to the current coverage.
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